Vol. 6, No. 2 March/April 1998	Previous Issues Subscribe to AT Messenger Download PDF Viewer
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Overbrook School's 2001 Project:
A national model for access to technology

One of the oldest schools in the nation is applying some of the latest technological innovations in preparing its students for the future. In only the second year of a four-year transition, the results are demonstrative.

A blind high school student places a newspaper page on a scanner. Using computer software, he scans the page and converts it into a digital file, which he's able to read on a refreshable braille display before sending to a braille printer to generate a hard copy he can read later. With a powerful desktop computer and specialized hardware and software, he's been able to take charge of his life in ways that were not previously available to him.

He's one of 190 students at Overbrook School for the Blind. The privately owned Philadelphia school that evolved from an academy founded in 1832 is attracting nationwide attention in education circles these days with its aggressive implementation of classroom technology. Initiated in 1996 in close cooperation with HumanWare, the Overbrook 2001 project is opening new avenues of independence and stimulating the intellectual curiosity of blind and low-vision students. Thanks to advances in adaptive software and hardware tools, people who are blind or visually impaired may now gain access to information resources as rapidly and effectively as sighted individuals.

The phased Overbrook 2001 project is designed to sequentially bring classrooms and teaching programs on-line over a four-year period. By 2001 all students in the secondary school program, encompassing junior and senior high school, will have individual workstations; all elementary classes will have workstations, and every preschool classroom will be equipped with a personal computer.

"Overbrook School has been using HumanWare products for the 15 years I've been here. Now Overbrook 2001 has made our relationship tighter," explains Bernadette M. Kappen, the school's administrative director. "Experience, reliability and responsiveness were essential elements for the 2001 program," said Kappen. "We required good technical assistance, and HumanWare has given us all the support we need. That's why in equipping our secondary classrooms, our most sophisticated configurations, we're working with HumanWare exclusively."

In just its second year, the 2001 program is yielding tangible results. "We've seen a noticeable increase in writing skills," reports Kappen. "Some of the kids were always very tentative at writing. Getting thoughts down on paper was challenging even for some low-vision students because it was difficult for them to read the material back." With desktop computing tools, however, students can easily review and revise their writing and use features like spell-check to help them feel more confident.

The HumanWare representative who supervises a seven-state territory says Overbrook 2001 has placed the school among the most technologically elite in the nation.

"Among numerous schools for blind in the mid-Atlantic area I cover, none other can compare," asserts Ed Smith, HumanWare's mid-Atlantic regional sales manager. "I don't know of another school that's taken on a project like this. In many of its programs Overbrook is applying technology in truly innovative ways to achieve remarkable results."

This article was reprinted in its entirety from HumanAwareness, Winter 1997-98 with permission from HumanWare, Inc.